Kindle Mania

Book giveaway tomorrow!! Click here if you aren't entered yet!

A few weeks ago, Christy asked you guys for advice on Kindle vs. Nook. Erica asked for her advice last week when my husband said he was sick of tripping over my books and he was giving me an e-reader for my birthday (which is next Saturday). My dad is the KING of consumer research, so I knew if I brought it up to him, he'd figure it out for me. (um, sorry for the change in pov here - this is Erica and I'm excited, so I'm switching from third to first and back - I PROMISE I don't do this in my novels!!)

erica and christy are proud to announce they are both the new moms to two Kindles. We are NOT saying anything bad about the Nook in anyway. Kindles were just the choice we both made (well, christy made her own decision and then erica let her dad buy her whichever he chose for her birthday - yes, her dad, so now she has no idea what her husband's going to get her...) (pretty sure it won't be an iPad, but a girl can dream...).

Don't get us wrong. We LOVE real books! We love shopping for them and reading them and curling up with them and looking at their covers and...well...everything about them. But we're also impatient (you can download a book to a kindle in like 12 seconds) and moms (shopping for books isn't easy with two kids running around the store) and sometimes poor (hey, we're teachers - and you can get FREE books on the Kindle as well as quite a lot of cheaper-than-the-real-thing books if there are some you just want to try). Plus, then we can have 2 copies of the same book and our husbands won't tease us for it (really, we like to buy books more than once. or maybe we just forget we already own them *whistles and backs away slowly*).

How about you? Have an e-reader? Any tips for us? (and as a treat to anyone who stuck with this post all the way through - christy has a secret reason why she hasn't been posting as much lately. she's very tired. scroll down the left sidebar to see how many miles she's ran this month and you'll find out what the secret is. :)

Oh, and since it's Monday, here's a recipe for a snack that's Kindle and laptop safe!!

Dried Beef Cheeseball

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 (3-4 oz) package dried beef, diced (rinse each piece to reduce saltiness if desired)

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 tsp. onion salt (can substitute garlic salt or seasoned salt if desired) (I've also heard you can sub chopped white onion, but haven't tried it)

1 Tbl. Worsteshire sauce

Combine all ingredients well (I put on gloves and smoosh it up with my hands). You can roll it into a ball and even roll it into crushed pecans if you want to make it pretty, but I just put it in a container if I'm not taking it to a party. Eat with Wheat Thins. You can also spread the mixture onto tortillas, roll up, and cut into pin-wheels. Super easy and super yummy!

Fear

I (erica) tend to think of myself as pretty reasonable human being. I wear my seatbelt and eat healthy foods and go to the dentist. I avoid large snakes, dark alleys, and jumping out of airplanes.

There's one thing that scares me more than anything. It's the completely irrational fear of failure. I've read about some writer's fear of success and how that could hold them back. I'm fine with success - stick me on a couch in front of [insert name of favorite TV host here] any day of the week and I'll get out there and sell my book.

But to not have a book to sell? I'm not putting anyone who self-publishes down here - it's just not for me
 That scares the crap out of me. Many of you know that in my real life, people don't know I write. They don't know about this blog. They think the writing conference I went to last April was a teaching conference and that Christy is a friend of mine from college (yes, we went to the same college. I think even at the same time for a year. no, we did not know each other).


This is how scared I am. That all my work and time and effort and research will accomplish nothing. That I've ignored my kids and my dogs and my husband and my house (yes, my kids and husband know that I write. trust me, this makes me very nervous). And that other people will witness my failure - and maybe even expect it. It's crippling me and I've all but shut-down. It's been weeks since I've written anything productive (I have done some revising, but nothing totally new). Days and days go by without me even opening my documents. Which makes me feel like an even worse failure - like I can't even look my characters in the eyes these days.

Have any of you read The Success Principles by Jack Canfield? I bought it several years ago when my life wasn't going in a way I was expecting and I felt overwhelmed. It really helped and I need to get it out again (well, buy a new copy, since I gave mine away).

Basically, the book told me to stop being afraid and make my life go the way it should go. I'm not afraid of whether or not I have the talent to write a book - I know I do. Now I just have to be strong enough to make it happen. And if for some reason it never does, I have to remember that writing and becoming published doesn't define my life - it just makes it better.

How do you feel about the fear of success vs. the fear of failure (or do you scoff at both?). And thanks for listening - maybe now I'll be able to get past this. (after all, they say confession is good for the soul) (click here for another post about writer's whining)

Happy Father's Day all you Dads out there!!

Time to be helpful.

Don't forget about our giveaway!! Click here to enter!!! YAY SUMMER!!!!

You see, reading YA helps you write YA. So, we're helpful, yes?? hehe - here are some links:

Our friend Christa (who's awesome and if you don't follow her, you totally should, so go ahead and do it right now, don't worry, we'll wait) has this really cool link on her sidebar for a publisher who accepts non-agented (and agented) YA-crossover and adult romance. It's Entangled Publishing and definitely check it out if you write in that genre!

On the same note, one of their editors had a very informative series on writing YA vs. Adult romance.

Erica was not a winner at a first-page contest recently, but Shelley's doing another one. Click here to participate.

As a result of my very few Twitter visits (really, I'm almost 36 and Twitter seems like a bunch of bother - says erica, who feels very old this week) - I discovered that a couple of Harlequin imprints are accepting submissions. One, dear to our hearts (yep, we're old, and we use that phrase) is inspirational.

We've both been struggling with the e-reader revolution. Read this for more information. (btw: erica and christy are both the proud owners of Kindles. YAY!!)

And yeah, well, I meant to include more than this today. But life sneaks up on us and now it's late and I have to go. How about a music video to harness the teen in all of us?? Who was your favorite music sensation from your teen years?? (and remember, erica admitted her age above!)?? (also, she admits to two - ok, three - NKOTB concerts. and, um, yes, she knows there's a new tour. and she so wants to go doesn't care.):

(late addition - I meant to include this one and somehow it didn't make it!) Any picture book writers out there? Here's a contest for you - Put your book in a Cherrios box!!

Follow, Comment and WIN!!!

SUMMER GIVEAWAYS @ erica and christy's!!!!

(for the first three packages there's an alternative prize of a $15 gift card just in case you already own the awesomeness)

Prize Package #1
Divergent by Veronica Roth or $15 to online bookstore of your choice

Prize Package #2
Possession by Elana Johnson or $15 to online bookstore of your choice


Prize Package #3
Dead Rules by Randy Russel or $15 to online bookstore of your choice

Prize Package #4

Home Collection:  John Grisham novels-  Playing for Pizza, The Street Lawyer
+Bonus Legal Thriller by Richard Patterson North Degree of Guilt

or Home Collection: Emilie Richards novels (mystery)-A Lie for A Lie, Beware False Prophets, Let There Be Suspects


or Home Collection: Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Colleen Coble's (romantic suspense)Distant Echoes, Catherine Anderson's (romance) Early Dawn

THE FIRST GIVEAWAY WILL HAPPEN IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS, SO SPREAD THE WORD! 

Enter today!

(You have until June 20 to enter for the first giveaway.  Your entries will count for ALL the summer giveaways, so you don't have to reenter each time.  But you can earn more entries each time if you choose to advertise for us again and again!  Watch for future post announcements!)

To enter:
Leave a comment for this post, including your email address, letting us know which prize package you choose and how you spread the word about our giveaway!

How many times do you want your name entered for the drawings?  It's up to you:
+3 for following
+2 for tweeting
+2 for blogging
+2 for sidebarring

Mealtime Madness Monday

Got a cookout to go to?  Need to bring a dish to pass?

Here's an easy recipe that anyone can make in a jiffy.

Taco dip:

Spread softened cream cheese on a medium-sized platter.
Spread a layer of salsa over that.
Cover the two layers with shredded cheese (cheddar or your preference).
Put the tray in the oven or microwave to melt the cheese and warm the layers just before serving with tostitoes or your chip of preference. 
Done.

(If you need some cheese options to choose from, check out my hubby's online cheese store selections. http://www.springsidecheese.com  If you find something you like, you can order and have it delivered to your home (US only)!  Stay tuned for Monday Mealtime Madness recipes featuring his dad's cheese made right here in Wisconsin!  I love cheese and married into a cheesemaking family to prove it!)